1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a method for reseating a toilet atop a drain from which at least a portion of the closet flange is missing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the installation of a conventional plumbing system for a toilet the vertical toilet sewage drain pipe beneath the toilet extends upwardly into an opening in the floor and terminates in a water closet coupling. The water closet coupling typically includes a tubular sleeve that encircles the upper extremity of the drain pipe and also a radially outwardly projecting annular closet flange. The closet flange is provided with a plurality of apertures. These typically include a pair of elongated, arcuately shaped slots each having a widened region through which a closet bolt head will pass and an adjacent narrower region having a dimension sufficient to admit passage of the shank of a closet bolt, but not the head. Closet bolts are inserted through the closet bolt slots and are moved laterally within the slots into vertical alignment with closet bolt openings in the base of a toilet. The shoulders formed by the closet bolt heads bear upwardly against the underside of the closet flange adjacent the edges of the narrower portions of the closet bolt slots, while the shanks of the closet bolts project upwardly through the narrower portions of the closet bolt slots.
To seat a toilet, a sealing ring, typically a wax ring having a generally toroidal shape is mounted on the exterior surface of the portion of the drain depending from the bottom of the toilet bowl. The closet bolts are moved along the closet bolt slots in the closet flange until they are in vertical alignment with the closet bolt openings in the base.
The toilet is then lowered vertically downwardly toward the water closet coupling until the peripheral margin of the toilet base rests upon the floor and the shanks of the closet bolts project upwardly through the closet bolt openings in the toilet base. Fender washers are first placed upon the exposed distal ends of the shanks of the closet bolts to provide a sufficient bearing surface to accommodate closet bolt nuts which are then threadably engaged onto the distal, upwardly projecting extremities of the closet bolts. The nuts are thereupon tightened to compress the sealing ring so as to seal the sealing ring to the toilet bowl and to the upper extremity of the drain and to firmly seat the toilet base upon the floor. Once the installation of a toilet is complete, the toilet base will not move relative to the floor and a firm, fluid-tight seal is established between the toilet and the extremity of the drain pipe.
For many years water closet couplings were formed of cast iron because toilet drain sewage pipes were likewise formed of cast iron. The use of the same materials allowed cast iron water closet couplings to be welded to cast iron drainage pipes. In recent times, however, the use of plastic drainage pipes has become much more prevalent. Plastic drain pipes are advantageous in that they are much lighter in weight than cast iron pipes, and can be solvent welded together with considerably greater ease than welding operations required to join sections of cast iron pipe together.
Because most building plumbing drainage piping now being installed is formed of plastic, the structure of water closet couplings has also changed. Specifically; the structural composition of many recent models of closet flanges employs a plastic sleeve about the upper end of the toilet drain pipe surrounded by a very thin painted steel flange. Since plastic is more flexible than iron or steel, it is still necessary for the radial closet flange to be formed of metal. Therefore, most water closet couplings manufactured for new plumbing installations are formed of plastic tubular sleeves having radially outwardly directed annular channels defined near their upper extremities with radially outwardly projecting steel closet flanges mounted in these channels. These flanges are longitudinally restrained by the structure of the outer surface of the plastic sleeve, but are freely rotatable relative thereto. The steel closet flanges provide sufficient structural rigidity to accommodate the closet bolt installation previously described and allow a toilet to be firmly seated and securely fastened to the upper extremity of a toilet drain pipe.
However, even though conventional steel closet flanges are painted for protection against corrosion, not infrequently the paint will become scratched, sometimes before and sometimes during installation. It has been found that even a very small scratch in the paint on a steel closet flange can lead to rapid rusting and structural deterioration of the closet flange throughout its entire circumference. When the areas of the structure of the closet flanges rust and crumble at the locations at which the closet bolt heads bear upwardly there against, the heads of the closet bolts pull through the deteriorated openings of the closet bolt slots.
The structure of such plastic and steel closet flanges is such that they rapidly deteriorate due to rusting if their protective layer of paint is scratched even slightly so as to provide the flange with an exposure to moisture. Indeed, even small scratches on the closet ring rims of such closet flanges which are legally employed in many areas of the country cause the rims of the flanges to rust and disintegrate relatively rapidly to the point where there is practically no structure of the rim left against which the heads of the closet bolts can bear. When this occurs the toilet bowl is no longer tightly held to the floor, since the structural integrity of the closet flange rim has deteriorated so greatly. Indeed, in many toilet flanges the rim deteriorates far beyond the immediate vicinity of the openings or slots defined therein through which the shanks of the closet bolts project. Indeed, large arcuate sections of the rim of the closet flange, and often the entire rim, will disintegrate and crumble apart due to rusting action.
When one of the closet bolts loses its bearing surface against the underside of the closet ring, the toilet will tend to rock and can twist on the floor. Seating on the toilet therefore becomes unsound, and the seal between the toilet drain and the toilet drain pipe formed by the sealing ring can become broken as well. When this occurs, it is necessary to repair this connection and reseat the toilet.
One system which was devised for this purpose is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,207,630. That patent describes a spanner clamp that is used to provide a missing bearing surface when a portion of a toilet closet flange has broken away. According to the practice described in that patent, a slotted flat metal member, shaped generally in the form of an arcuate metal strip, is provided to span the gap that is left when only a portion of an annular water closet flange has broken away. In such a situation there is still enough structure left of the original water closet flange on either side of the broken away portion to provide a bearing surface for the ends of the spanner strip.
To use this system the spanner strip must first be positioned beneath the level of the original water closet flange. The shank of a closet bolt is inserted through the slot in the spanner strip and directed upwardly through the gap left by the broken away portion of the water closet flange. The ends of the spanner strip bear upwardly against the undersides of the remaining structure of the original closet flange on either side of the gap left therein when a portion of the closet flange has been broken away.
One significant problem with the system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,207,630 is that the system only works if there is sufficient structure left from the original closet flange to provide adequate surfaces against which the ends of the spanner strip can bear. While cast iron closet flanges will sometimes fail by loss of only a relatively narrow sector of material, the same is not true of the steel closet flanges that are now employed to such a wide extent with plastic drain pipe. Unlike cast iron flanges, the steel flanges that are widely utilized with plastic drain pipes fail not so much by fracture and the loss of a relatively narrow, arcuate sector of material, but more typically by complete or nearly complete disintegration due to rust and corrosion. As a consequence, in the failure of a steel closet flange now utilized in most modern plumbing installations, there is very little material left to provide any type of bearing surface to accommodate a spanning strip of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,207,630.
As a result, it has heretofore been necessary to remove and replace the entire water closet coupling of a composite plastic steel water closet coupling when failure of the steel closet flange occurs. However, it is extremely difficult to remove the plastic sleeve of such a water closet coupling from the plastic upper extremity of a drain pipe. Furthermore, the area in which this work must be carried out is below the floor level, so that there is often inadequate room for manipulation of tools and insufficient space to accommodate the hands of the plumber to perform the tasks necessary. As a consequence, the replacement of composite steel and plastic water closet couplings has heretofore been inordinately time consuming and expensive.